Tag: Violent crime

Teenage driver charged in crash of stolen car that killed 4

[ad_1]

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A 16-year-old accused of driving a stolen SUV involved in a high-speed crash that killed four teenage passengers was arraigned Tuesday on manslaughter and other charges.

The parents of two of those killed, meanwhile, have filed a lawsuit against automaker Kia, claiming their children would be alive if its cars were harder to steal.

A total of six teens were in the Kia Sportage when it crashed on state Route 33 on Oct. 24, Buffalo police said. The car had been reported stolen the previous night.

The driver, apparently held in by an airbag and the steering wheel, was the only occupant not ejected through the sunroof when the vehicle struck a concrete embankment at high speed and flipped backwards, District Attorney John Flynn said. The driver was treated at a hospital and released. A 14-year-old girl also survived.

The driver, whose name was not released, pleaded not guilty in Erie County Court on Tuesday to charges of manslaughter, assault and possession of stolen property. He was released under supervision with an ankle monitor, according to Flynn, who said opposed the release.

Flynn told reporters the teen was charged as an adolescent but he would argue to keep the case in adult court at a hearing next week.

“I still don’t think it’s right that this kid is out playing video games when on Thursday at Thanksgiving, there’s going to be an empty chair of four individuals at the Thanksgiving dinner table,” he said.

The 16-year-old’s attorney said in court that those killed were close friends.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said after the crash that the teens may have been participating in a TikTok challenge encouraging people to break into and steal Kia cars using cellphone chargers.

The so-called Kia challenge showed how to hot-wire Kias and Hyundais with a USB cord and a screwdriver. Many police departments around the country have reported increases in Kia and Hyundai thefts since the video was posted last summer.

A federal lawsuit filed last week on behalf of the mothers of 15-year-old Kevn Payne Jr. and 17-year-old Swazine Swindle, who died in the Buffalo crash, seeks unspecified damages while accusing Kia Corp. and Kia America Inc. of negligence and creating a public nuisance. It alleges that Kia failed to include an anti-theft device on certain vehicles and did not recall the cars or warn the public when the issue became evident.

California attorney Jonathan Michaels, who represents the parents, said no one should be stealing cars but social media can have a powerful pull.

“This is something that, on a young brain that’s not fully developed, that temptation is just so strong,” Michaels, of MLG Attorneys at Law, said by phone, “and they’re not understanding the consequences of what they’re doing, and all their friends are doing it. So it’s foreseeable this is happening, and it’s a defect to begin with.”

An insurance industry group has said some Kias are stolen at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the auto industry because their keys lack computer chips for theft “immobilizer” systems.

Kia has since announced it would include an immobilizer for all vehicles starting with model year 2022.

A spokesman for the automaker said the company generally does not respond to pending litigation.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 22, 2022
Court: Long sentence for Black man who killed at 17 stands

[ad_1]

SEATTLE — The Washington Supreme Court has declined to reconsider an opinion that upheld a Black man’s virtual life sentence for shootings he committed at age 17, despite criticism that the ruling betrayed racial bias.

The court upheld the 61-year sentence for Tonelli Anderson in September, abandoning a precedent issued just a year earlier in which it said — in the case of a white defendant — that such long terms for juvenile killers were unconstitutional because it left them no chance of a meaningful life outside prison.

Anderson’s attorney, Travis Stearns of the Washington Appellate Project, sought reconsideration of the 5-4 ruling, writing that it reflected racial bias. Three civil rights organizations — the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law; the Juvenile Law Center, based in Philadelphia; and Huy, which supports Indigenous inmates in the Pacific Northwest — also urged the court to reconsider.

But such motions are legal long shots, and the court denied it Monday without explanation. The King County prosecutors had also opposed it, saying Anderson’s criminal history and belated acceptance of responsibility helped distinguish his case.

Anderson, now 45, shot two women, killing one and blinding the other, during a drug robbery in Tukwila in 1994. An accomplice also shot and killed a man at the same home.

Anderson was not immediately arrested and went on to commit other crimes as a young adult, including assault and robbery, and he wrote letters to girlfriends bragging about the shootings. It wasn’t until 1998, after investigators learned of the letters, that he was charged.

He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2000 and sentenced to 61 years. He was granted a new sentencing hearing in 2018, following federal and state rulings that children must be treated differently by the justice system. But the judge gave him the same term, finding Anderson had not shown the shootings reflected “transient immaturity.”

In recent years, the Washington Supreme Court has further restricted sentences that can be imposed on children.

In 2018, the justices held that it violated the state Constitution to sentence 16- or 17-year-olds to life in prison without parole. That ruling came in the case of Brian Bassett, a white man who killed his parents and brother when he was 16. Bassett has since been resentenced to 28 years.

In September, the court struck down a 46-year sentence for Timothy Haag, a white man who was 17 when he drowned his 7-year-old neighbor. In that case, a six-justice majority held that juvenile murder defendants must be given “a meaningful opportunity to rejoin society after leaving prison.”

Bassett and Haag were both quickly caught and prosecuted.

In Anderson’s appeal, Justice Debra Stephens wrote for the 5-4 majority that such virtual life sentences for juveniles are barred by the state Constitution only if their crimes “reflect youthful immaturity, impetuosity, or failure to appreciate risks and consequences.”

Anderson’s was not such a case, Stephens said.

The dissenting justices said it was nonsensical that the court would find a 46-year sentence for a white 17-year-old to be an unconstitutional “de facto” life sentence, while upholding a 61-year sentence for a Black 17-year-old. Justice Mary Yu wrote it would be “willfully oblivious” to conclude race played no role.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office said the high court’s decision maintained the discretion of trial judges to weigh the facts of each case and apply an appropriate sentence.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 22, 2022
Man charged with reckless homicide in Apple store crash

[ad_1]

HINGHAM, Mass. — A man is being charged with reckless homicide after crashing his SUV through the front window of an Apple store in Massachusetts, killing one person and injuring at least 16 others, authorities said Tuesday.

Bradley Rein, 53, will be arraigned Tuesday on a charge of reckless homicide by motor vehicle after an investigation by state and local police into the crash in Hingham, southeast of Boston, the Plymouth County district attorney’s office said.

Rein was arrested Monday night and is to be arraigned in district court in Hingham, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. It’s unclear yet whether he has an attorney to speak on his behalf.

A 2019 Toyota 4Runner crashed into the store’s plate glass window and struck people Monday morning. The victim who died was identified as Kevin Bradley, 65, of New Jersey.

Apple released a statement saying it was “devastated by the shocking events at Apple Derby Street today and the tragic loss of a professional who was onsite supporting recent construction at the store.”

The storefront window showed a gaping hole as first responders worked at the scene of the crash. The store had been scheduled to open about an hour before the crash.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 22, 2022
Mother, friends, performers among dead at Colorado gay club

[ad_1]

A loving boyfriend. A 28-year-old bartender who loved to perform. A mother visiting from a small town who enjoyed hunting. These are among the victims of the rampage at an LGBTQ club in Colorado Springs that left five people dead and 17 others with gunshot wounds.

Club regulars and newcomers — gay and straight, transgender and cisgender — flocked to Club Q over the weekend to dance, enjoy a comedy show or work behind the bar. What began as a typical Saturday evening of dancing and drinking at the preeminent LGBTQ establishment in the conservative-leaning Colorado city south of Denver ended in tragedy when a gunman entered and began spraying bullets before he was tackled and subdued.

The 22-year-old suspect is facing five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury.

Here are the five people killed:

DANIEL ASTON

Daniel Aston, 28, grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and moved to be closer to family in Colorado Springs two years ago. He worked as a bartender and entertainer at Club Q and cherished the venue as a sanctuary where as a transgender man he could be himself and perform to a lauding audience, his mother Sabrina Aston told The Associated Press.

The self-proclaimed “Master of Silly Business,” Aston had a propensity for making others laugh that started as a child when he would don elaborate costumes and write plays acted out by neighborhood kids. In college, where he was president of his school’s LGBTQ club, he put on fundraisers with ever-more flashy productions.

″(Daniel’s shows) are great. Everybody needs to go see him,” his mother said. “He lit up a room, always smiling, always happy and silly,” she said.

DERRICK RUMP

Derrick Rump, 38, a bartender at Club Q, was remembered as a loving person with a quick wit who adopted his friends as his family.

“He was living his dream and he would have wanted everyone to do the same,” said his mother, Julia Thames, who confirmed his death to ABC News.

She said in a statement that Rump was “a kind loving person who had a heart of gold.”

“He was always there for my daughter and myself when we needed him; also his friends from Colorado, which he would say was his family also,” she said in the statement.

Rump’s friend, Anthony Jaramillo, told CBS News that Rump was “loving, supportive, with a heavy hand in his drink pouring, and just a really good listener and would not be afraid to tell you when you were wrong instead of telling you what you wanted to hear and that was really valuable.”

KELLY LOVING

Kelly Loving, 40, had been talking to a friend on a FaceTime call from inside Club Q just minutes before the shooting started. Natalee Skye Bingham told The New York Times that the last thing she said to Loving was: “Be safe. I love you.”

“She was like a trans mother to me. I looked up to her,” Bingham said. “In the gay community you create your families, so it’s like I lost my real mother almost.”

Bingham, 25, said Loving had only recently moved to Denver and was visiting the club while on a weekend trip to Colorado Springs.

“She was a tough woman,” Bingham said. “She taught me how it was to be a trans woman and live your life day to day.”

Loving’s sister, Tiffany Loving, offered condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the shooting as well as those struggling for acceptance in the world.

“My sister was a good person. She was loving and caring and sweet. Everyone loved her. Kelly was a wonderful person,” she said in a statement.

RAYMOND GREEN VANCE

Raymond Green Vance, 22, went to Club Q on Saturday night with his girlfriend, Kassy Fierro, and her father, Rich, the co-owner of Atrevida Beer Co., a local brewery in Colorado Springs. The group was there to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

“My sweet baby. ill never be able to heal from this. i want to wake up from this horrendous nightmare. i pray u hear me when i call for you. im so sorry. ill never forgive myself for taking everyone there. i will love you til the day i get to come back home to your arms,” Kassy Fierro wrote in a Facebook post Monday accompanied by a photo of the couple.

Vance’s family in a statement described him as a kind, selfless man with a promising future. He worked at a FedEx Distribution Center, loved video games and was “willing to go out of his way to help anyone,” the family said.

“Raymond was the victim of a man who unleashed terror on innocent people out with family and friends,” they wrote in the statement.

ASHLEY PAUGH

Ashley Paugh, 35, was a loving mother and wife with a “huge heart,” said her husband, Kurt Paugh. She volunteered with an organization that helped children in foster care and delivered Christmas trees to the homes in which they were placed to brighten their holiday seasons.

“She was my high school sweetheart — and she was just an amazing mother. Her daughter was her whole world,” her husband said in a statement.

She also enjoyed hunting, fishing and riding four-wheelers.

A resident of La Junta, a 7,500-person town about a two-hour’s drive from Colorado Springs, Paugh was visiting for the day with a friend when they went to Club Q on Saturday night for a comedy act. She was scheduled to organize the delivery of trees to homes with foster children in Pueblo and Colorado Springs this week, her husband said.

———

Associated Press News Researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York and reporter Jesse Bedayn in Colorado Springs contributed to this report. Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 22, 2022
Wave of sex abuse lawsuits seen as NY opens door for victims

[ad_1]

ALBANY, N.Y. — Sexual assault victims in New York will get a one-time opportunity to sue over their abuse starting Thursday, under a new law expected to bring a wave of allegations against prison guards, middle managers, doctors and a few prominent figures including former President Donald Trump.

For one year the state will waive the normal deadlines for filing lawsuits over sex crimes, enabling survivors to seek compensation for assaults that happened years or even decades ago.

Advocates say the Adult Survivors Act is an important step in the national reckoning over sexual misconduct and could provide a measure of justice to people who may have needed time to come forward due to trauma, embarrassment or fear of retaliation.

“I feel like I’ve been in jail for almost three decades,” said Liz Stein, 49, who says she was abused by the millionaire and notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when she was a young woman. “And it’s more than time for me and the other victims to be free of that prison that we’ve been in, and for the people who are accountable to be held accountable.”

The law is modeled after the state’s Child Victims Act, which opened a two-year window in 2019 during which almost 11,000 people sued churches, hospitals, schools, camps, scout groups and other institutions over abuse they said they suffered as children.

Most states that have opened such windows did so only for people abused as children, though New Jersey’s included adults.

New York will begin accepting electronic filings on Thanksgiving Day, six months after the law was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Lawyers say they have been getting calls from people considering lawsuits, mostly women.

“I think there will be a lot of women who will say, ‘I think that’s me. Because I think what happened at that Christmas party in 1998 wasn’t right. And I couldn’t tell anybody about it at the time.’ And they want to tell somebody about it,” attorney Jeanne Christensen said.

Legal action has already been promised on behalf of hundreds of women who say they were sexually abused while serving sentences at state prisons.

Other cases could come from college students assaulted by professors, athletes abused by coaches or workers assaulted by bosses.

A lawsuit against Trump is expected from E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine who says he raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Trump denies the allegation, saying Carroll made it up to sell a book. Carroll is already suing Trump for defamation, saying his denials and disparaging comments to the media damaged her reputation.

Claims can be made against negligent institutions and the estates of dead people. Some are expected from women who were inspired to come forward by the #MeToo movement, only to be told that too much time had passed to take legal action.

It’s unclear there will be as many lawsuits as were filed under the Child Victims Act. That law attracted many lawyers because of the possibility of verdicts against deep-pocketed institutions involved in caring for or educating children.

Stein’s lawsuit, to be filed by her lawyer, Margaret Mabie, will be against Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, and other parties. Stein was working at a shop in Manhattan in 1994 when she met Maxwell, who introduced her to Epstein.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. Maxwell’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.

In addition to the high-profile claims, there will be “many, many more” cases that don’t get publicity, said Liz Roberts, CEO of the victim assistance nonprofit Safe Horizon. Roberts said that for many survivors, just telling their story can be healing.

“I’m just finding my voice, and I’m learning how powerful that can be,” said Laurie Maldonado, one of scores of women who say they were molested during examinations by New York City gynecologist Robert Hadden.

Hadden surrendered his medical license after being convicted in 2016 on sex-related charges in state court. He has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of sexually abusing many young and unsuspecting female patients for over two decades.

The medical institutions that employed Hadden, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian, have already resolved claims by 225 women, including one group of 147 that recently settled for $165 million. They said in a statement that they remain open to settling other claims “irrespective of the Adult Survivors Act.”

While the Child Victims Act received a lot of publicity when its window opened in 2019, some advocates are worried too few people are aware of the one opening for adults.

Safe Horizon last week launched a public awareness campaign featuring survivors, including a public service announcement and a news conference in Times Square.

“We’re just keenly aware that a year is a short time,” Roberts said.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
Rage and sadness as Colorado club shooting victims honored

[ad_1]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Hundreds of people, many holding candles and wiping away tears, gathered Monday night in a Colorado Springs park to honor those killed and wounded when a gunman opened fire on a nightlife venue that for decades was a sanctuary for the local LGBTQ community.

The vigil came as the 22-year-old suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, remained hospitalized after Saturday night’s attack in which five people were killed and another 17 suffered gunshot wounds before patrons tackled and beat the suspect into submission. Aldrich faces five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury, online court records showed.

The attack at Club Q has shaken the LGBTQ community in this mostly conservative city of about 480,000, located 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Denver. At Monday night’s vigil people embraced and listened as speakers on a stage expressed both rage and sadness over the shootings.

Jeremiah Harris, who is 24 and gay, said he went to the club a couple times a month and recognized one of the victims as the bartender who always served him. He said hearing others speak at the vigil was galvanizing following the attack.

“Gay people have been here as long as people have been here,” Harris said. “To everybody else that’s opposed to that … we’re not going anywhere. We’re just getting louder and you have to deal with it.”

Authorities have yet to reveal a motive for the attack, but the charges against Aldrich include hate crime charges, which would require proving that the gunman was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. The charges against Aldrich are preliminary, and prosecutors have not filed formal charges in court yet.

Court documents laying out Aldrich’s arrest have been sealed at the request of prosecutors. Information on whether Aldrich had a lawyer was not immediately available.

Local and federal authorities during a Monday news briefing declined to answer questions about why hate crime charges are being considered, citing the ongoing investigation. District Attorney Michael Allen noted that the murder charges would carry the harshest penalty — life in prison — whereas bias crimes are eligible for probation.

“But it is important to let the community know that we do not tolerate bias motivated crimes in this community, that we support communities that have been maligned, harassed and intimidated and abused,” Allen said, adding that additional charges are possible.

More details emerged Monday about those killed and those credited with stopping the shooting.

Authorities said the attack was halted by two club patrons including Richard Fierro, who told reporters that he took a handgun from Aldrich, hit him with it and pinned him down with help from another person.

Fierro, a 15-year U.S. Army veteran who owns a local brewery, said he was celebrating a birthday with family members when the suspect “came in shooting.” Fierro said he ran at the suspect, who was wearing some type body armor, and pulled him down before severely beating him until police arrived.

Though his actions saved lives, Fierro said the deaths — including his daughter’s boyfriend, 22-year-old Raymond Green Vance — were a tragedy both personal and for the broader community.

“There are five people that I could not help. And one of which was family to me,” he said, as his brother put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

Vance’s family said in a statement that the Colorado Springs native was adored by his family and had recently gotten a job at FedEx, where he hoped to save enough money to get his own apartment.

The other victims were identified by authorities and family members as Ashley Paugh, 35, a mother who helped find homes for foster children; Daniel Aston, 28, who had worked at the club as a a bartender and entertainer; Kelly Loving, 40, whose sister described her as “caring and sweet”; and Derrick Rump, 38, another club bartender who was known for his quick wit and adopting his friends as his family.

Thomas James was identified by authorities as the other patron who intervened to stop the shooter. Fierro said a third person also helped — a performer at the club who Fierro said kicked the suspect in the head.

Thirteen victims remained hospitalized Monday, officials said. Five people had been treated and released.

A law enforcement official said the suspect used an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon. A handgun and additional ammunition magazines also were recovered. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The assault quickly raised questions about why authorities did not seek to take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021, when he was arrested after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons.

Though authorities at the time said no explosives were found, gun-control advocates have asked why police didn’t use Colorado’s “red flag” laws to seize the weapons his mother says he had. There’s no public record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.

It was the sixth mass killing this month, and it came in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It also rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.

Since 2006, there have been 523 mass killings and 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the U.S.

———

Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

———

Associated Press reporters Haven Daley in Colorado Springs, Colleen Slevin in Denver, Darlene Superville in Washington, Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Jeff McMillan in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and news researcher Rhonda Shafner from New York contributed.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
Virginia cancels Virginia Tech game after players killed

[ad_1]

The University of Virginia has canceled its game against rival Virginia Tech scheduled for Saturday following the slaying of three players on campus just over a week ago.

The university made the announcement Monday night, two days after a nearly two-hour memorial service to remember Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry. The three were fatally shot on Nov. 13 after a field trip to see a play in Washington.

“The decision was made following communication between the Atlantic Coast Conference, Virginia and Virginia Tech athletic department administration,” Virginia Tech said in a statement. “The ACC and Virginia Tech continue to support UVA following the devastating tragedy … .”

Authorities have said that Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a UVA student and former member of the team who was on the trip, began shooting at students on the bus as it pulled to a stop at a campus parking garage.

A prosecutor said in court last week that a witness told police the gunman targeted specific victims, shooting one as he slept. Two other students were wounded.

Jones, 23, faces second-degree murder and other charges stemming from the shooting, which set off a manhunt and 12-hour campus lockdown before Jones was apprehended in suburban Richmond. Jones is being held without bond.

Authorities have not released a motive.

Virginia also canceled a game against No. 23 Coastal Carolina last Saturday.

Neither the Cavaliers (3-7, 1-6 Atlantic Coast Conference), under first-year coach Tony Elliott, nor the Hokies (3-8, 1-6), under first-year coach Brent Pry, have anything to lose by not playing their Commonwealth Cup matchup, the last scheduled game for both.

The Hokies, who endured a massacre that left 33 dead, including the gunman, in 2007, wore orange uniforms as they ended a seven-game losing streak with a 23-22 victory at Liberty on Saturday. The Hokies and Virginia share orange as a signature color.

———

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap—top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/mrxhe6f2

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
Gay bar shooting suspect faces murder, hate crime charges

[ad_1]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The man suspected of opening fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs was being held on murder and hate crime charges Monday, while hundreds of people gathered to honor the five people killed and 17 wounded in the attack on a venue that for decades was a sanctuary for the local LGBTQ community.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, faces five murder charges and five charges of committing a bias-motivated crime causing bodily injury in Saturday night’s attack at Club Q, online court records showed.

Authorities said the attack was halted by two club patrons including Richard Fierro, who told reporters Monday night that he took a handgun from Aldrich, hit him with it and pinned him down with help from another person.

Fierro, a 15-year U.S. Army veteran who owns a local brewery, said he was celebrating a birthday with family members when the suspect “came in shooting.” Fierro said during a lull in the shooting he ran at the suspect, who was wearing some type of armor plates, and pulled him down before severely beating him until police arrived.

“I tried to save people and it didn’t work for five of them,” he said. “These are all good people. … I’m not a hero. I’m just some dude.”

Fierro’s daughter’s longtime boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance, 22, was killed, while his daughter hurt her knee as she ran for cover. Fierro injured his hands, knees and ankle while stopping the shooter.

The suspect remained hospitalized with unspecified injuries but is expected to make his first court appearance in the next couple of days, after doctors clear him to be released from the hospital.

The charges against Aldrich were preliminary, and prosecutors had not filed formal charges in court yet. The hate crime charges would require proving that the gunman was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Local and federal authorities during a Monday news briefing declined to answer questions about why hate crime charges are being considered, citing the ongoing investigation. District Attorney Michael Allen noted that the murder charges would carry the harshest penalty — life in prison — whereas bias crimes are eligible for probation.

“But it is important to let the community know that we do not tolerate bias motivated crimes in this community, that we support communities that have been maligned, harassed and intimidated and abused,” Allen said. “And that’s one way that we can do that, showing that we will put the money where our mouth is, essentially, and make sure that we try it that way.”

Additional charges are possible as the investigation continues, he said.

About 200 people gathered Monday night in the cold at a city park for a community vigil for the shooting victims. People held candles, embraced and listened as speakers on a stage expressed both rage and sadness over the shootings.

Jeremiah Harris, who is 24 and gay, said he went to Club Q a couple times a month and recognized one of the victims as the bartender who always served him. He said hearing others speak at the vigil was galvanizing following the attack at what for more than 20 years had been considered an LGBTQ safe spot in the conservative-leaning city.

“Gay people have been here as long as people have been here,” Harris said. “To everybody else that’s opposed to that … we’re not going anywhere. We’re just getting louder and you have to deal with it.”

The other victims were identified by authorities and family members as Ashley Paugh, 35, a mother who helped find homes for foster children; Daniel Aston, 28, who had worked at the club as a a bartender and entertainer; Kelly Loving, 40, whose sister described her as “caring and sweet”; and Derrick Rump, 38, another club bartender who was known for his quick wit and adopting his friends as his family.

Vance’s family said in a statement that the Colorado Springs native was adored by his family and had recently gotten a job at FedEx, where he hoped to save enough money to get his own apartment.

Thomas James was identified by authorities as the other patron who intervened to stop the shooter. Fierro said a third person also helped — a performer at the club who Fierro said kicked the suspect in the head as she ran by.

Court documents laying out Aldrich’s arrest have been sealed at the request of prosecutors. Information on whether Aldrich had a lawyer was not immediately available.

A law enforcement official said the suspect used an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon. A handgun and additional ammunition magazines also were recovered. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Thirteen victims remained hospitalized Monday, officials said. Five people had been treated and released.

Officials on Monday clarified that 18 people were hurt in the attack, not 25 as they said originally. Among them was one person whose injury was not a gunshot wound. Another victim had no visible injuries, they said.

Colorado Springs, a city of about 480,000, is 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Denver. Mayor John Suthers said there was “reason to hope” all of the hospitalized victims would recover.

The assault quickly raised questions about why authorities did not seek to take Aldrich’s guns away from him in 2021, when he was arrested after his mother reported he threatened her with a homemade bomb and other weapons.

Though authorities at the time said no explosives were found, gun-control advocates have asked why police didn’t use Colorado’s “red flag” laws to seize the weapons his mother says he had. There’s no public record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich.

It was the sixth mass killing this month, and it came in a year when the nation was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It also rekindled memories of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.

President Joe Biden talked to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis by phone and will continue to press Congress for an assault weapons ban “because thoughts and prayers are just not enough,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.

A makeshift memorial that sprang up in the hours after the attack continued to grow Monday, as a stream of mourners brought flowers and left messages in support of the LGBTQ community. The shooting site remained cordoned off.

“It’s a reminder that love and acceptance still have a long way to go,” Colorado Springs resident Mary Nikkel said at the site.

Since 2006, there have been 523 mass killings and 2,727 deaths as of Nov. 19, according to The Associated Press/USA Today database on mass killings in the U.S.

———

Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

———

Associated Press reporters Haven Daley in Colorado Springs, Colleen Slevin in Denver, Darlene Superville in Washington, Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Jeff McMillan in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, and news researcher Rhonda Shafner from New York contributed.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
‘It’s the reflex’: Veteran helped disarm gunman at gay club

[ad_1]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — When army veteran Rich Fierro realized a gunman was spraying bullets inside the club where he had gathered with friends and family, instincts from his military training immediately kicked in.

First he dove to duck any potential incoming fire, and then he moved to try to disarm the shooter.

“It’s the reflex. Go! Go to the fire. Stop the action. Stop the activity. Don’t let no one get hurt. I tried to bring everybody back,” he said Monday outside his home.

Fierro is one of two men police are crediting with saving lives by subduing a 22-year-old gunman who went on a shooting rampage Saturday night at Club Q, a well-known gathering place for the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs.

Fierro was there with his daughter Kassy, her boyfriend and several other friends to see a drag show and celebrate a birthday. He said it was one of the group’s most enjoyable nights, until the shooting started.

Fierro told reporters that once his instincts kicked in, he and another man approached the shooter. He grabbed the attacker’s body armor and began punching him while the other man, Thomas James, began kicking him. The suspect reached for a handgun, but Fierro grabbed it from him. He also told James to kick away the shooter’s AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

When a performer who was there for the drag show ran by, Fierro told them to kick the gunman. The performer stuffed a high-heeled shoe in the attacker’s face and also tried to subdue him, Fierro said.

“I love them,” Fierro said of the city’s LGBTQ community. “I have nothing but love.”

Fierro and James, about whom little was known as of Monday evening, pinned the shooter down until officers arrived minutes later.

Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said Monday that Fierro acted courageously.

“I have never encountered a person who had engaged in such heroic actions who was so humble about it,” Vasquez said. “He simply said to me, ‘I was trying to protect my family.’”

The mass shooting left five dead and at least 17 wounded by gunfire. The suspect, who was said to be carrying multiple guns and additional ammunition magazines, faces murder and hate crime charges.

Fierro’s wife, Jess, said via Facebook that her husband had bruised his right side and injured his hands, knees and ankle. “He was covered in blood,” she wrote on the page of their brewery, Atrevida Beer Co..

Though his actions saved lives, Fierro said the five deaths — including his daughter’s boyfriend, Raymond Green Vance — were a tragedy both personal and for the broader community.

“There are five people that I could not help. And one of which was family to me,” he said, as his brother put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

Fierro said he doesn’t remember if the gunman responded as he yelled and struggled to subdue him, but he has thought about their next interaction.

“I’m gonna see that guy in court,” Fierro said. “And that guy’s gonna see who did him.”

——

Metz reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press reporter Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
Georgia authorities arrest mother of still-missing toddler

[ad_1]

SAVANNAH, Ga. — The mother of a toddler reported missing Oct. 5 in Georgia has been arrested in connection with the child’s disappearance and presumed death, authorities said Monday.

The Chatham County Police Department in a post on Twitter said officers had arrested Leilani Simon, 22, on charges of malice murder, concealing the death of another person, false reporting and making false statements involving her son — 20-month-old Quinton Simon.

Police Chief Jeff Hadley, at a news conference later Monday, said Simon has been the sole suspect since the child was first reported missing.

“This is a heartbreaking development,” Hadley said. “From the beginning, we were hopeful we would find him alive and unharmed. But evidence has always pointed to the mother and we believe his remains were found in the landfill.”

Human remains were found in a landfill on Friday and the FBI, which has assisted in the search and other aspects of the case, is working to confirm the remains are those of the child, Hadley said.

“It could be days before we have full confirmation, said Will Clarke, the supervisory senior resident agent for the FBI’s Savannah and Brunswick offices.

“What happened to this child should not happen to anyone let alone by someone who should be their protector,” he added.

Hadley said Simon was transported to the Chatham County Detention Center where she will await a bond hearing. Simon had no listed phone number and it was not known Monday if she had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf. Court records showed she represented herself in two civil cases filed since March involving custody of her children and child support.

“We do not anticipate any other arrests in connection with this case,” Hadley said.

“We are deeply saddened by this case, but we are thankful that we are one step closer to justice for little Quinton,” the police department said in its post on Twitter announcing the arrest.

Hadley said they are still determining whether to continue searching the landfill in light of Friday’s findings and will confer with the FBI before that decision is made.

“We have a high level of confidence that those are Quinton’s remains,” Hadley said of why authorities moved to arrest Simon.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
Memorial set Monday for one of 4 Idaho university victims

[ad_1]

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A memorial service was scheduled Monday for one of the four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in their home early Nov. 13, as police in the college town of Moscow have yet to identify a suspect in the slayings.

The memorial service for Ethan Chapin was scheduled for Monday afternoon in Mount Vernon, Washington, a city on Puget Sound north of Seattle.

Chapin, 20, was a triplet, and is survived by his parents and his siblings Maizie and Hunter. He attended Mount Vernon High School, where he played basketball. All three triplets enrolled in the University of Idaho last August.

“Since attending the University of Idaho, Ethan lived his best life,” according to his obituary. “He loved the social life, intramurals and tolerated the academics. He also continued to play sports.”

“If he wasn’t on the golf course or working, you could usually find him surfing, playing sand volleyball or pickle ball,” the obituary said.

On Sunday, law enforcement officers investigating the deaths asked for patience after a week passed with no arrests.

Authorities said they have no suspect or weapon in the killings, which shook Moscow, a town of 25,000 residents in the Idaho Panhandle that had not recorded a homicide in about five years.

Students and residents have expressed concern about a lack of details from police, who initially said there was no danger to the public but a few days later acknowledged they couldn’t say there was no threat.

“We know that people want answers — we want answers, too,” Idaho State Police Col. Kedrick Wills said. “Please be patient as we work through this investigation.”

Moscow Police Chief James Fry said authorities have received nearly 650 tips and conducted 90 interviews. Police have also requested businesses and residences in specific parts of the city to share with them footage recorded between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on the day of the killings.

The university is in recess this week for Thanksgiving.

The victims were Chapin; seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; and junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho. The women were roommates, and Chapin was dating Kernodle.

Authorities on Sunday said they were each stabbed multiple times, and that some had defensive wounds.

Police said two other roommates who were in the house on the night of the killings slept through the attack, waking later that day. Police said one of their phones was used to call 911 from inside the residence at 11:58 a.m. Police on Sunday declined to say who made the 911 call.

Police have said evidence leads them to believe the students were targeted, although they haven’t given details and declined to do so again on Sunday. Investigators say nothing appears to have been stolen from the victims or the home. Police have said there was no sign of forced entry, and first responders found a door open when they arrived.

Dozens of additional law enforcement officers have arrived in Moscow, officials said.

The Moscow Police Department said four detectives, five support staff and 24 patrol officers are working on the case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has 22 investigators helping in Moscow, and 20 more agents assisting from outside the area. The Idaho State Police has supplied 20 investigators, 15 troopers for patrols and its mobile crime scene team.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
Navy SEAL wins appeal of sentence in soldier’s hazing death

[ad_1]

NORFOLK, Va. — A military appeals court has ordered a new sentencing hearing for a U.S. Navy SEAL who got 10 years in prison for his role in the hazing death of a U.S. Army Green Beret while the men served in Africa.

Prosecutors failed to disclose that a U.S. Marine who testified against the SEAL — and who participated in the hazing — had asked for clemency in exchange for his testimony, the court ruled. The SEAL’s defense attorneys missed the chance to question the Marine about a “potential motive to misrepresent events.”

The United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals published the ruling last week, nearly two years after Tony DeDolph received his decade-long punishment.

DeDolph, a Wisconsin native, was a member of the elite SEAL Team 6. He was one four American servicemembers — two SEALs and two Marines — who were charged in the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, a Texas native.

The hazing occurred in 2017 while the men served in Mali. Charging documents don’t state why they were there. But U.S. Special Forces had been in Africa to support and train local troops in their fight against extremists.

The case offered a brief window into how some of America’s most elite servicemembers have addressed grievances outside the law.

DeDolph testified during his 2021 court-martial that the four men were trying to get back at Melgar and teach him a lesson over perceived slights. In particular, some were upset that they missed a party at the French Embassy in the capital city of Bamako because Melgar and the others got separated in traffic.

DeDolph said they plotted an elaborate prank for Melgar known as as a “tape job.” That included binding Melgar with duct tape, applying a choke hold to temporarily knock him out and then showing Melgar a video of the incident sometime later.

DeDolph said his role in the prank was to cause Melgar to temporarily lose consciousness by placing him in a martial-arts-style chokehold. DeDolph said the “rear naked choke” restricts blood flow in the neck and is used in the military.

“I effectively applied the chokehold as I have done numerous times in training,” DeDolph said.

Melgar lost consciousness in about 10 seconds, but failed to wake up after the typical 30 seconds, DeDolph testified.

“Usually by that time, the individual has gotten up,” DeDolph said. “And he did not.”

DeDolph pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and hazing, among other charges. A sentencing hearing followed, during which one of the Marines testified on behalf of the government. The appeals court used a synonym to identify the Marine in its ruling.

The Marine’s role in the hazing included raising the mosquito netting around Melgar’s bed and binding his arms and legs with tape, the appeals court wrote. The Marine offered a detailed account of the assault, including the methods that DeDolph used to render Melgar unconscious.

DeDolph’s attorneys knew that the Marine had already pleaded guilty to charges that included negligent homicide and hazing, while agreeing to testify against DeDolph, the court wrote. But DeDolph’s attorneys were unaware that the Marine was also requesting less prison time, specifically two years instead of the four he got.

“The fact that (the Marine) sought additional clemency … in exchange for his testimony is clearly information that tended to demonstrate (his) bias, and bore on his credibility,” the appeals court wrote. DeDolph’s attorneys were denied the opportunity to examine the Marine’s potential bias and whether he had a “motive to exaggerate his testimony.”

The Marine’s sentence was later reduced from four years confinement to three years.

“(T)here is a reasonable possibility that the outcome of the trial would have been affected by the disclosure of the clemency request,” the court wrote.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
UVA football player wounded in shooting gets out of hospital

[ad_1]

RICHMOND, Va. — A University of Virginia player who was seriously wounded in a shooting that killed three of his teammates has been released from the hospital.

Brenda Hollins, the mother of running back Mike Hollins, tweeted early Monday: “Mike has been discharged!!! HALLELUJAH.”

She asked for continued prayers “as he recovers and settles into his new life.” She also asked for prayers for the families of the three players who were killed in the Nov. 13 shooting. “They need us!!!” she wrote.

Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were shot on a charter bus as they returned to campus from a field trip to see a play in Washington. Each died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Authorities have said that Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., a UVA student and former member of the team who was on the trip, began shooting at students on the bus as it pulled to a stop at a campus parking garage.

A prosecutor said in court last week that a witness told police the gunman targeted specific victims, shooting one as he slept. Two other students were wounded. Student Marlee Morgan was released from the hospital last week. A spokesperson for the Hollins family said last week that Hollins, who was shot in the back, underwent multiple surgeries and was making progress in his recovery.

Jones, 23, faces second-degree murder and other charges stemming from the shooting, which set off a manhunt and 12-hour campus lockdown before Jones was apprehended in suburban Richmond. Jones is being held without bond.

Authorities have not released a motive.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 21, 2022
‘Master of Silly Business’ among 5 dead in Colorado shooting

[ad_1]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — On a typical night at the Club Q, a bastion for LGBTQ people in the largely conservative city of Colorado Springs, Daniel Aston could be seen letting loose and sliding across the stage on his knees tailed by his mullet to whoops and hollers.

The venue provided Aston, a 28-year-old transgender man and the self-proclaimed “Master of Silly Business,” with the liberating performances he had long sought. But on Saturday it became the site of the latest mass shooting in the U.S. when a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle opened fire and killed Aston and four others. Twenty-five others were injured.

His mother, Sabrina Aston, vacillated between past and present tense as she discussed her son Sunday night in their Colorado Springs home. Aston’s father, Jeff Aston, sat nearby listening to his wife’s stories and alternating between tightly clasping his hands and cupping his forehead.

“We are in shock, we cried for a little bit, but then you go through this phase where you are just kind of numb, and I’m sure it will hit us again,” she said. “I keep thinking it’s a mistake, they made a mistake, and that he is really alive,” she added.

Her son’s eagerness to make people laugh and cheer started as a child in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he would don elaborate costumes, including the beast from “Beauty and the Beast,” cycle through weird hats, and write plays acted out by neighborhood kids.

Aston preferred dressing as a boy at a young age until teasing from other kids pushed him to try girls clothing. While Sabrina Aston enjoyed helping style her son, she said the fashion led to weight loss. “He was miserable,” she said.

After coming out to his mother, he attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and became president of its LGBTQ club. He put on fundraisers with ever-more flashy productions (“He didn’t just stand and lip-sync,” Sabrina Aston made clear) and fanned over ’80s hair bands.

Two years ago, Aston moved from Tulsa to Colorado Springs — where his parents had settled — and started at Club Q as a bartender and entertainer, where his parents would join in the cheers at his shows.

“(Daniel’s shows) are great. Everybody needs to go see him,” his mother said. “He lit up a room, always smiling, always happy and silly,” she said.

Members of Colorado Spring’s LGBTQ community say Club Q has been one of only a few havens where they could be fully authentic in one of the state’s more conservative metros. Sabrina Aston said that’s why her son took to the club; it gave his identity room to breathe and “he liked helping the LGBT community.”

She first heard about the attack and that her son had been shot at 2 a.m. on Sunday when the phone rang. It was one of her son’s friends breaking the news that a shooting had occurred at Club Q and their son was in Memorial Hospital.

Sabrina and Jeff Aston rushed to the hospital, where they were first asked to wait outside, then in a waiting room and finally in a private room where detective asked them questions as authorities worked to identify the bodies.

Sabrina Aston told the detective about her son’s tattoos, including a heart on his left arm, pierced by an arrow, and wrapped in a ribbon reading “Mom.”

The couple was sent home without any update and sat in a stupor, their minds cycling through hope, then the worst, then hope that it wasn’t the worst.

“We thought he had just gotten hurt — you can fix hurt,” his mother said.

When a detective and a patient advocate knocked on their door later that morning, Sabrina Aston said she thought of the soldiers walking towards the homes of yet-unaware widows during wartime. She knew what had happened.

The parents went into shock, the tears flowed and they went numb.

“It’s just a nightmare that you can’t wake up from,” she said.

———

Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 20, 2022
Gay club shooting suspect evaded Colorado’s red flag gun law

[ad_1]

DENVER — A year and a half before he was arrested in the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooting that left five people dead, Anderson Lee Aldrich allegedly threatened his mother with a homemade bomb, forcing neighbors in surrounding homes to evacuate while the bomb squad and crisis negotiators talked him into surrendering.

Yet despite that scare, there’s no record prosecutors ever moved forward with felony kidnapping and menacing charges against Aldrich, or that police or relatives tried to trigger Colorado’s “red flag” law that would have allowed authorities to seize the weapons and ammo the man’s mother says he had with him.

Gun control advocates say Aldrich’s June 2021 threat is an example of a red flag law ignored, with potentially deadly consequences. While it’s not clear the law could have prevented Saturday night’s attack — such gun seizures can be in effect for as little as 14 days and be extended by a judge in six-month increments — they say it could have at least slowed Aldrich and raised his profile with law enforcement.

“We need heroes beforehand — parents, co-workers, friends who are seeing someone go down this path,” said Colorado state Rep. Tom Sullivan, whose son was killed in the Aurora theater shooting and sponsored the state’s red flag law passed in 2019. “This should have alerted them, put him on their radar.”

But the law that allows guns to be removed from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others has seldom been used in the state, particularly in El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, where the 22-year-old Aldrich allegedly went into Club Q with a long gun at just before midnight and opened fire before he was subdued by patrons.

An Associated Press analysis found Colorado has one of the lowest rates of red flag usage despite widespread gun ownership and several high-profile mass shootings.

Courts issued 151 gun surrender orders from when the law took effect in April 2019 through 2021, three surrender orders for every 100,000 adults in the state. That’s a third of the ratio of orders issued for the 19 states and District of Columbia with surrender laws on their books.

El Paso County appears especially hostile to the law. It joined nearly 2,000 counties nationwide in declaring themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” that protect the constitutional right to bear arms, passing a 2019 resolution that says the red flag law “infringes upon the inalienable rights of law-abiding citizens” by ordering police to “forcibly enter premises and seize a citizen’s property with no evidence of a crime.”

County Sheriff Bill Elder has said his office would wait for family members to ask a court for surrender orders and not petition for them on its own accord, unless there were “exigent circumstances” and “probable cause” of a crime.

El Paso County, with a population of 730,000, had 13 temporary firearm removals through the end of last year, four of which turned into longer ones of at least six months.

The county sheriff’s office declined to answer what happened after Aldrich’s arrest last year, including whether anyone asked to have his weapons removed. The press release issued by the sheriff’s office at the time said no explosives were found but did not mention anything about whether any weapons were recovered.

Spokesperson Lt. Deborah Mynatt referred further questions about the case to the district attorney’s office.

An online court records search did not turn up any formal charges filed against Aldrich in last year’s case. And in an update on a story on the bomb threat, The Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs reported that prosecutors did not pursue any charges in the case and that records were sealed.

The Gazette also reported Sunday that it got a call from Aldrich in August asking that it remove a story about the incident.

“There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I’m asking you either remove or update the story,” Aldrich said in a voice message to an editor. “The entire case was dismissed.”

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, Howard Black, declined to comment on whether any charges were pursued. He said the shooting investigation will also include a study of the bomb threat.

“There will be no additional information released at this time,” Black said. “These are still investigative questions.”

AP’s study of 19 states and the District of Columbia with red flag laws on their books found they have been used about 15,000 times since 2020, less than 10 times for every 100,000 adults in each state. Experts called that woefully low and hardly enough to make a dent in gun killings.

Just this year, authorities in Highland Park, Illinois, were criticized for not trying to take guns away from the 21-year-old accused of a Fourth of July parade shooting that left seven dead. Police had been alerted about him in 2019 after he threatened to “kill everyone” in his home.

Duke University sociologist Jeffrey Swanson, an expert in red flag laws, said the Colorado Springs case could be yet another missed warning sign.

“This seems like a no brainer, if the mom knew he had guns,” he said. “If you removed firearms from the situation, you could have had a different ending to the story.”

———

Condon reported from New York.

———

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 20, 2022
Gunfight in upstate NY wounds 3, including Vermont deputy

[ad_1]

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gunfire on the streets of Saratoga Springs early Sunday morning left at least three people wounded, including an off-duty sheriff’s deputy from Vermont who was shot multiple times by police.

The gunfire broke out at 3 a.m. in the historic downtown of the small city, known for its thoroughbred horse racing, fine restaurants and and cultural attractions.

Video from a street camera appeared to show a group of people fighting on the sidewalk, then scattering as shots were fired.

Two men were shooting at each other as police arrived, including a deputy from the Rutland County Sheriff’s Office, according to Saratoga Springs Police Sgt. Paul Veitch.

Body camera video released by the city showed officers running toward the sound of the gunshots with their pistols drawn, one screaming “drop the gun!”

When the sheriff’s deputy, who was not in uniform, didn’t drop his weapon, Saratoga Springs officers opened fire, according Commissioner of Public Safety James Montagnino.

The deputy, who was not immediately identified, suffered 10 bullet wounds, including one to the chest, but was conscious and was expected to survive, the Times-Union reported.

His girlfriend’s arm was grazed by a bullet.

The deputy had gotten into a barroom argument with a group of three people from Utica, Montagnino said. After the fight spilled onto the street, the deputy showed his weapon and the Utica man drew his, which was when gunfire broke out, the commissioner said.

Seven to eight shots were fired between the two, and the deputy shot the Utica man, Times-Union reported.

All three gunshot victims were in stable condition at a hospital, Veitch said early Sunday evening. Authorities didn’t identify them.

The shooting is the first time in 26 years that a police officer in Saratoga Springs fired a weapon at someone, Montagnino said.

“I’m proud of how our officers handled it,” Montagnino said. “No one emptied their clip.”

For decades, New York has tightly restricted who can carry firearms in public, but a Supreme Court decision in June held that the state’s licensing laws were unconstitutional.

Revised rules that make it illegal to carry a firearm inside a place that serves alcohol are the subject of a court challenge, but are still in effect.

“Nobody should be on Caroline Street at 3 o’clock in the morning drinking that has a weapon. End of story,” said Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim.

———

Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 20, 2022
Idaho police seek surveillance video after stabbing deaths

[ad_1]

BOISE, Idaho — Authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students as they slept in a house near campus are asking for outside surveillance video to help solve the week-old crime.

The Moscow Police Department late Saturday requested from businesses and residences in specific parts of the city any footage recorded between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Nov. 13, the day of the killings.

Police said they have received about 500 tips after the killings shook the Idaho Panhandle community of 25,000 residents. The leafy college town about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Spokane, Washington, last saw a homicide about five years ago.

Also on Saturday, police said a private driver who gave two of the women a ride home was not involved in the crime.

Police planned a news conference on Sunday afternoon to provide updates.

All four victims were members of fraternities and sororities: seniors Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; junior Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; and freshman Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. The women were roommates, and Chapin was dating Kernodle.

Police said Chapin and Kernodle were at Sigma Chi house on the University of Idaho camps and returned home around 1:45 a.m. on Nov. 13. Police said Mogen and Goncalves were at a bar called The Corner Club in downtown Moscow, left the bar and stopped at a food truck, and then also returned home at about 1:45 a.m.

Police on Saturday said Mogen and Goncalves made multiple calls to a male they didn’t identify, and that information is part of an ongoing investigation.

Additionally, police said a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt and seen in a video at the food truck near Mogen and Goncalves shortly before they returned home is not involved in the crime.

Police said two other roommates who were in the house on the night of the killings had returned home at about 1 a.m. and slept through the attack, waking later that day. Police said one of their phones was used to call 911 from inside the residence at 11:58 a.m.

Police have said those two roommates were not involved in the killings.

Police said the victims were found on the second and third floors of the six-bedroom home.

Police have said evidence leads them to believe the students were targeted, though they haven’t given details. Investigators say nothing appears to have been stolen from the victims or the home. Police have said there was no sign of forced entry, and first responders found a door open when they arrived.

Police also said online reports of the victims being tied and gagged are not accurate.

Police have seized the contents of three dumpsters to locate possible evidence, and detectives have asked local businesses if they recently sold a fixed-blade knife.

The Moscow Police Department said four detectives, five support staff and 24 patrol officers are working on the case.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has 22 investigators helping in Moscow, and 20 more agents assisting from outside the area.

The Idaho State Police has supplied 20 investigators, 15 troopers, and its mobile crime scene team.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 20, 2022
Charges dropped against deputy after 2 died in flooded van

[ad_1]

MARION, S.C. — Criminal charges have been dropped against a former deputy who was helping to transport two mental health patients who drowned while locked in the back of a van that was driven into floodwaters caused by 2018’s Hurricane Florence in South Carolina.

The van’s driver, former Horry County Deputy Stephen Flood, was convicted in May of two counts of reckless homicide and is serving nine years in prison. But authorities decided to drop involuntary manslaughter charges against former Horry County Deputy Joshua Bishop, who was riding along and didn’t realize until it was too late that Flood was risking their lives, Solicitor Ed Clements told news outlets last week.

Clements said Bishop did everything he could to rescue the women. He said Flood’s trial helped clear up Bishop’s role in the September 2018 deaths of Wendy Newton, 45, and Nicolette Green, 43. The two women had been involuntarily committed for mental health care and were being transferred for treatment outside Horry County.

While judges agreed to the commitment orders for Newton and Green, their families said they were not violent. Newton was only seeking medicine for her fear and anxiety and Green’s family said she was committed to a mental facility at a regular mental health appointment by a counselor she had never seen before.

The floodwaters swept the police van off its wheels and pinned it against a guardrail, preventing the women from being able to get out the sliding door they used to enter the van. Flood and Bishop did not have a key to a second door and there was no emergency escape hatch, according to testimony at Flood’s trial.

The deputies said they spoke to the women and tried to keep them calm for about an hour as the water kept rising before it got too dangerous and rescuers could no longer hear them.

Bishop testified he tried to shoot the locks off the second door, but it still would not open. The delay in getting help was costly too. A firefighter testified they were able to cut the roof off the van and started working on the cage, but the water got higher and faster and it was too dangerous to continue.

Flood told investigators he was trying to find the shortest and quickest route to the treatment centers and if the road was too dangerous, he thought National Guard troops at barricades closing the highway leading to the bridge would have told him to stop.

Prosecutors said Flood should not have been stubborn and turned around when he started driving through water covering the highway.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 20, 2022
Police: 5 dead, 18 injured in Colorado nightclub shooting

[ad_1]

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A shooting at a LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado left five people dead and 18 wounded late Saturday night and a suspect was in custody, police said.

Lt. Pamela Castro of the Colorado Springs Police Department said police received a report of a shooting at Club Q at 11:57 p.m.

Castro said there was one suspect who was injured and was being treated. She said it was not immediately clear whether he had been shot by officers. She said the FBI was on the scene and assisting in the case.

The police department tweeted that it planned an 8 a.m. news conference at its operations center.

Club Q is a gay and lesbian nightclub that features a “Drag Diva Drag Show” on Saturdays, according to its website.

“Club Q is devastated by the senseless attack on our community,” the club posted on its Facebook page. It said its prayers were with victims and families, and “We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”

The motive behind the shooting was not immediately known but it brought back memories of the 2016 massacre at the the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people. And it occurred in a state that has experienced several notorious mass killings, including at Columbine High School, a movie theater in a Denver suburb in 2012 and a Boulder supermarket last year.

[ad_2]

Source link

November 20, 2022
Police: 5 dead, 18 injured in Colorado nightclub shooting

[ad_1]

Police: 5 dead, 18 injured in Colorado nightclub shooting

[ad_2]

Source link

November 20, 2022